36th Atlantic Championship Season Gets Underway This Weekend in Sebring

SEBRING, Fla. (March 17, 2009) - The 36th anniversary season of the
Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda gets
underway on Friday at Sebring International Raceway as part of the
American Le Mans Series Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh
from Florida festivities.

This weekend's race is the first of 12 for the Atlantic
Championship in 2009, with a $1 million payday awaiting the series
champion at season's end and a $50,000 prize for this
weekend's race winner. The entry list features 21 cars and a deep
and talented field of drivers ready for battle.

If times from Tuesday's promoter test day at Sebring are any
indication, 2008 Star Mazda champion John Edwards may be the man to beat
on Friday afternoon. Edwards topped the Tuesday time charts with a best
lap at 1:53.957 in the No. 36 MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development/Nuclear
Clean Air Energy/NEI/Entergy machine for Newman Wachs Racing. The
18-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio returns to the Atlantic Championship
this season after a one-year absence during which he claimed the Star
Mazda title. Two years ago, Edwards became the youngest driver in
Atlantic history at the age of 16 and scored a career-best result of
second at Toronto.

Edwards is joined on the two-car NWR team by defending Atlantic champion
Markus Niemela in the No. 1 Mr. Jones/Nuclear Clean Air
Energy/Entergy/NWR machine. Niemela posted the sixth-quickest time in
Tuesday testing, but the Finnish racer will undoubtedly be heard from
frequently throughout the weekend and the entire season.

The driver who finished just behind Niemela in the 2008 championship
standings is also back in Atlantic this season, as American Jonathan
Bomarito will once again pilot the familiar black and yellow No. 26
machine for Mathiasen Motorsports. Bomarito led the series last year with
three victories and looks to be back on pace for the season opener with a
second-quickest lap at 1:54.255 in Tuesday's test.

As is always the case in the Atlantic Championship, the 2009 field
features a number of talented rookies looking to make names for
themselves in North America's longest-running open-wheel driver
development series. Belgian Frederic Vervisch is one such driver. The
former champion of ATS Formula 3 and Asian Formula 3 posted the
third-quickest time of the test at 1:54.296 aboard the No. 17 Genoa
Racing entry.

Vervisch was the first of three rookies to crack the top five in testing.
Running the fourth-quickest lap at 1:54.510 was Latvian Harald
Schlegelmilch in the No. 21 Conquest Racing machine at 1:54.510.
Schlegelmilch brings previous experience from International Formula
Masters, the Formula 3 Euroseries, German F3 and German Formula BMW among
other series with him to the Atlantic series.

Series newcomer Borja Garcia of Valencia, Spain completed the top five in
Tuesday testing with a lap at 1:54.873 in the No. 6 CJ Consulting entry
from Condor Motorsports. Garcia-who previously competed in GP2, the World
Series by Renault and Superleague in Europe-quickly got the attention of
his fellow Atlantic competitors last week in testing at Palm Beach
International Raceway, where he topped the time charts for all four
sessions in the two-day test.

Just behind Niemela, who posted a time of 1:55.020, was another driver
returning to the Atlantic Championship after a one-year absence, Matt Lee
of Syosset, N.Y. Lee turned a best lap at 1:55.157 in the No. 2 machine
for Jensen MotorSport.

American standout Jonathan Summerton, who finished third in the 2008
Atlantic Championship standings with a pair of victories, wrapped up a
deal with Genoa Racing over the weekend and got his first seat time in an
Atlantic machine since last year's season finale at Road Atlanta in
Tuesday's test sessions. He was eighth fastest on the day at
1:55.283 in the No. 19 machine.

Team Stargate Worlds teammates Simona De Silvestro and Frankie Muniz
completed the top 10 in testing. De Silvestro, who opened the 2008
Atlantic campaign at Long Beach by becoming the second woman in series
history to win a race, was ninth fastest at 1:55.537 in the No. 78
Stargate Worlds/Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment/FireSky/Cardinal
Technologies machine. Muniz was 10th in the No. 77 Stargate
Worlds/Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment/FireSky/Cardinal Technologies
entry at 1:56.086. Both drivers are entering their third season of
Atlantic competition.

British racer James Winslow, who was announced as driver of the No. 12
Conquest Racing entry on Monday, posted the 11th-fastest lap of the test
at 1:56.904. It was the first time in an Atlantic machine for the former
Australian Formula 3, Formula Renault V6 and Asian Formula 3 champion.

Garcia's Condor Motorsports teammate, French rookie Max Lefevre,
was 12th in testing at 1:57.395 in the No. 7 DOTMOBIL machine. Lefevre
won the 2008 West European Formula Renault Challenger Cup title, as well
as the 2007 French Formula Ford championship.

Rounding out the field of Mazda-Cosworth/Swift 016.a/Cooper drivers in
the test was rookie Michael Nacol in the No. 3 Jensen MotorSport entry at
2:02.932. Nacol, a native of Houston, Texas, is making his professional
racing debut in Friday's Atlantic season-opener.

One driver who did not participate in the test but will be participating
in the race this weekend is three-time Atlantic race-winner Tonis
Kasemets. The Estonia-born racer-who finished third in both races of a
doubleheader last season at Road America in his lone Atlantic weekend of
the year-will drive the No. 35 Polestar Motor Racing machine. The No. 8
Condor Motorsports entry and the No. 18 entry from Genoa Racing are still
listed with drivers to be announced.

The 2009 Atlantic season-opener will also feature five C2 class entries,
all coming from the Swan Racing stable in Kansas City, Kan. and all but
one carrying sponsorship from Everclear Specialty Lubricants. All cars in
the C2 category are previous generation Swift 014.a chassis.

The quickest of the C2 entries in Tuesday's test at Sebring was
team owner/driver Mirl Swan in the No. 88 machine at 1:58.532. Swan was
followed by Sadat Yelkin at 2:00.339 and Chris Lee at 2:04.510. Ahsen
Yelkin was fourth in C2 at 2:05.659 in the No. 29 machine followed by
Mike Mallinen at 2:07.323 in the No. 71 Mallinen Properties machine.

Each entry will ride on Cooper Atlantic racing slicks and rain tires. The
official race weekend schedule features practice and qualifying on
Wednesday and Thursday, with the 45-minute season-opener slated to roll
off from a standing start at 2:00 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon.

* Big Money On The Line: The 2009 Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic
Championship Powered by Mazda will feature a $1 million prize for the
series champion and $50,000 to win this weekend's race at Sebring
International Raceway. Second place in the championship standings is now
worth $500,000, with $200,000 going to third place in the season
standings. Last year's champion, Markus Niemela, won $300,000 for
taking the title.

* Everybody Gets A Mulligan: The 2009 Atlantic Championship features
a new wrinkle in the way the championship will be decided, as all drivers
will earn points from their best 11 finishes in the 12-race season.

* On The Road Again: The 12-race 2009 Atlantic Championship schedule
brings the series to many of North America's most revered road
racing circuits. The series shares seven race weekends with the American
Le Mans Series at Sebring International Raceway, Miller Motorsports Park,
Lime Rock Park, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Mosport International
Raceway, Road Atlanta and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The Atlantic series
is the "headline" attraction in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec and in
doubleheader weekends at New Jersey Motorsports Park and Autobahn Country
Club in suburban Chicago.

* Atlantic Returns to Sebring: While Sebring International Raceway
has long been a favorite testing location for Atlantic Championship
teams; this weekend's race will be just the second in the 36-year
history of the series at Sebring. Scott Harrington won the lone previous
Atlantic race at the Central Florida circuit in 1988, which Steve Shelton
started from the pole.

* International Flair: This weekend's race will feature drivers
representing 10 different countries. The United States is best
represented with a total of 10 drivers with one each from Finland, Spain,
France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Latvia, Turkey, Estonia and
Switzerland.